


Begin Again

by TheSadisticMunchkin



Series: 30 Days of Hamburr Challenge [13]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: 30 Days of Hamburr, 30 Days of Writing, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chance Meetings, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Lawyer Burr, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Private Investigator Alexander Hamilton, Private Investigators, Reconciliation, at some point, high school sweethearts, they dont kiss but they will, when theyre fine again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-05-31 00:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6447541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSadisticMunchkin/pseuds/TheSadisticMunchkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliza Jumel hires Ross Faucette (aka Alexander Hamilton, private investigator and part-time mercenary) to stalk her ex-boyfriend, Aaron Burr, for blackmail. </p><p>Alexander would have done a fantastic job if it <i>hadn't</i> been Aaron Burr.</p><p>Day 13 of the 30 Days of Hamburr Self-Induced Challenge of 2016</p>
            </blockquote>





	Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to have a detailed story on Aaron and Alex in high school, with all the angst and juicy plotlines your trashy little heart desires, ask someone else. This was emotionally damaging as it is. I'm not good at chaptered fics.
> 
> Also, Eliza Jumel wasn't actually /crazy/ in history. She ended up being one of the richest women in America through marrying rich people/people with a high status (one of them was Aaron Burr and there was this other guy. Mr. Jumel, I guess?) and truly not wanting to be poor anymore. 
> 
> I just wasn't comfortable making Theodosia or Eliza Schuyler the crazy ex-girlfriend. They just don't seem like those kinds of people.
> 
> Anyway, the random dedication of the day goes to bookoftheatre on tumblr!

This was probably the most interesting job he got yet.

 

Sure, he would get jobs like stalking Donald Trump or finding out where the  _ real  _ Avril Lavigne was but this one was the most interesting he got in about a month. He had to get by with small investigations like murders, robberies, and other petty things he wasn’t a big fan of. If there was one thing that Alexander Hamilton, private investigator, and part-time mercenary, liked it was working for crazy exes.

 

Eliza Jumel was one of those crazy ex-girlfriends.

 

She met her now ex-boyfriend when he recently broke up with his other girlfriend who also happened to be  _ married  _ when they met _.  _ The first time he read his profile, he nicknamed him the human disaster. He knew of Theodosia Bartow Prevost, he murdered her husband about 2 years ago so she could be with the same person Eliza is making him stalk. Unfortunately, she got back with her husband on the day that he was assigned to kill him. 

 

It was a wild ride from start to finish. He was grateful Theodosia doesn’t remember his name.

 

So now here he was packing whatever he could into the rental car so he could go and stalk a certain Aaron Burr. Funny. He knew an Aaron Burr in high school. Maybe this was a different Aaron Burr? He didn’t know how many Aaron Burr's there were in the world but he just wanted to give himself the benefit of the doubt. The Aaron Burr that he was gaining blackmail information from was not the same Aaron Burr he went to Prom with.

 

He wasn’t.

 

With a quick detour to hack the nearest ATM for some cold cash, he drove to Manhattan. “Ms. Jumel, I got this don’t worry.”

 

“You better, Mr. Faucette! My entire insurance is at stake and if you mess this up…”

 

“I won’t. If I don’t, I’ll give you permission to shoot me.”

 

“I’m not  _ that  _ crazy!” Then she hung up.

 

Yeah. Right.

 

Of course, Alexander was  _ far  _ from stupid. He never guaranteed that he would get the job done but his clients didn’t need to know that. He also never gave them his real name. He would always give them aliases like Wayne Bruce, Aro Smith, Justin Laboy, and most recently he altered his own mother’s name into Ross Faucette. Every single client that hired him before knew him by a different alias and a different number. 

 

This time was no different.

 

He checked his phone again to see if he got the address right and parked in a more secluded area of the street. His car was hidden enough so that Aaron Burr couldn’t see him but exposed enough so that  _ he  _ could see Aaron Burr. Alexander put up everything he needed to be able to listen in on Burr’s conversations, super zoom into every room in the house, and of course, hack into his personal computer to see what other juicy material he could get from there.

 

Just as he was about to get into his email, the man himself pulled up in front of his house. Alexander immediately pulled himself down onto the floor of his car just to make sure he didn’t see him stalking. Once he picked up on his earpiece that Aaron entered his house, he breathed deep and sat back up again in the driver’s seat. Jesus, that was close. He didn’t know what he was going to do if Aaron Burr caught him.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

_ Oh shit, he caught me. _

 

Alexander turned his head slowly and, lo and behold, there stood Aaron Burr with his arms crossed against his chest. He looked a little menacing as he stood quite taller than him. “Hey there! I was just… stopping here to eat lunch.”  _ Stupid. What kind of private investigator are you?  _ One look at the block and it told him that there was no restaurant within his vicinity. He just basically blew his cover. He had a rule for this, for when he would blow his cover.

 

He had to tell the truth.

 

He  _ hated  _ when he had to do that.

 

“I’m going to come clean to you but do you promise not to beat me up if I do?”

* * *

 

An hour later, he was sitting at the table with a mug of hot chocolate in his hands as he retold the story of how Alexander met Aaron’s ex-girlfriend. He saved the part where he decided to become a private investigator because right now, that was none of Burr’s business. After he finished telling every detail, except for his real name, of course, Burr was pacing the dining room with a hand running down his face.

 

“So… she wants to blackmail me for money?”

 

“Pretty much, yeah.”

 

_ “Sweet Jesus…” _

 

“Hey! Don’t blame me for this, I’m just her private investigator. Well, not so private anymore. Since you found out about me literally about 30 minutes into the game, I’m obligated to give out all information. I don’t like being tied to any of this shitty legal stuff so I’d rather be some anonymous witness rather than the cause of your predicament.” Alexander leaned back into his chair and downed his hot chocolate in one gulp. Burr was still pacing the room.

 

He heard the scrape of the chair legs on the wooden floor before he looked up to see Burr watching him for any sign of falsehood. Well, two could play at that game. He lightly placed the mug on the designated coaster and pointedly stared at Burr right back. He did what he could with this job and honestly, he was getting bored. He thought blackmailing this guy would be fun but he found out pretty quickly. There wasn’t any fun in it anymore.

 

“I know you.” Burr finally said and if Alexander had any hot chocolate in his mouth, he would have to spit it out by now. “You look familiar but I can’t… I just  _ know  _ you.” The way Burr was looking at him intently made Alexander gulp slightly but he continued to keep his cool. There was  _ no way  _ that this was the same Aaron Burr from high school. He was practically in love with that guy before. This couldn’t be the same person.

 

He broke that person’s heart.

 

But one look into his eyes, the eyes he hasn’t seen in such a long time, he couldn’t totally deny it anymore.

 

“Well, we can play that 20 questions game. I already attempted to get into your personal life. Why not try and dig mine out?” It was a stupid thing to say but if Burr was still half as clever as he was in high school, he would figure it out. “I can start if you want. You have no other choice, I’m going to start anyway.” He pulled his chair out from underneath the table to fully face Burr and so that he could make sure that he wasn’t hiding something from him. “Was Eliza Jumel as crazy before as she is now?”

 

Burr didn’t answer straight away but when he realized that Alexander wasn’t going to move, he opened his mouth. “Yes. Did she say something about her insurance being in danger when she hired you?”

 

“How did you know that? Don’t answer that, you fucking dated her. Um… Did you happen to go to the High School in Newark?”

 

_ Shit. _

 

_ Fuck,  _ he shouldn’t have said that. Why did his mouth and brain decide to betray him today of all days? He finally saw his high school sweetheart again but he didn’t want it to be this way. In fact, there was a reason he left all that behind. He didn’t want any ties. He had enough pain and suffering before he even immigrated to the United States. People got hurt, they hurt themselves, they hurt others and they hurt him. He didn’t want to be hurt anymore.

 

He also didn’t want to hurt Aaron. That was  _ why  _ he cut their relationship short after graduation.

 

Yet… here he was feeling 10 years worth of regret. 

 

“Your name’s not Ross, is it?”

 

“No.”

 

Aaron took a sharp intake of breath. “Is your real name Alexander?” His voice cracked at  _ Alexander _ and everything he ever feared suddenly slapped him in the face. Here was his past coming to haunt him in the worst way possible. Here was his first love, his only love, looking at him like he could barely recognize him anymore. He never could bring himself to love anyone else after high school. He got into sketchy places, had one night stands, almost fucking  _ died  _ just trying to forget.

 

Obviously, he couldn’t.

 

“Yes. It’s me.” How could he lie to the only person who stayed with him even after everything that happened in school? He exposed scandals, rumors, and nasty things in the school newspaper for everyone to see. There was  _ no one  _ in the school who was safe from Alexander’s wrath. Everyone even Aaron Burr got thrown shade. Yet, Aaron stayed with him. After he cheated on Eliza with Maria, no one wanted to touch him or speak to him.

 

Everyone except Aaron.

 

He couldn’t lie to the boy who told him that he was more than just his past. He couldn’t lie to the boy who tied him down when he thought he was going to fly into the sun. He couldn’t lie to the boy who touched him and looked at him like he deserved to be loved again. He couldn’t. He just  _ couldn’t.  _ “Oh god I--” Aaron couldn’t even finish his sentence before he was covering his mouth up to hide what Alexander assumed was a sob.

 

“I missed you.” Alexander admitted and Aaron looked away. Yeah. He probably shouldn’t have taken the job in the first place when he heard the name,  _ Aaron Burr.  _ He knew there was only  _ one  _ Aaron Burr in the entire world. He knew there was only  _ one  _ name that could make his heart beat as fast as it did before he got into the private investigating business. He should have said no to this. He should have said not to Eliza Jumel and told her that he was busy with something else.

 

But he didn’t.

 

Somewhere deep inside, he wanted to see Aaron again. Inevitably, if he did his job right, he would have ruined his life but it was a price he had to pay if he wanted even just a little glimpse of him. He lived in a nice neighborhood. He had a nice car, a nice house, and it looked like he actually pursued his career in becoming a lawyer. He was living the dream that he always wanted with only one thing missing from the high school version he knew;

 

_ Alexander. _

 

“I didn’t think it would have to be this way, you know? Private investigating? What happened to rise above your station and leaving a legacy?” It seemed that Aaron still had the image of little, 18-year-old Alex with the big head and big dreams. He realized that a person like him wouldn’t be able to rise up in this economy so he stopped his dreams from getting any bigger. He still couldn’t say why he became a private investigator and part-time mercenary. In reality, he couldn’t even remember when he started.

 

“I grew up.” He said simply and it was his turn to pace around the room in frustration. “Look, Burr,” He winced a little bit at how Aaron looked away when he called him by his last name. “I set this path for myself and I have to follow it. I’ll tell Eliza that I’ll send someone else on the job when in reality, I’m just going to let you go. You won’t see me. You won’t see Eliza. I’ll promise you that.” Alexander looked back at Aaron and was shocked to see tears falling down his cheeks.

 

_ He still cares. _

 

“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since then.” 

 

_ Why does he still care? _

 

“Even when you broke up with me, I still thought about you. I wanted to contact you but I knew it wouldn’t be enough for me just to tell you  _ I missed you.  _ Because why would you leave when I know you wouldn’t come back?” 

 

_ I don’t understand why you still care. _

 

“Fuck, Alex, I don’t think I could  _ ever  _ stop thinking about you. Is that weird? We’ve been apart for more than 10 years and then I see you again and it feels like the first time.”

 

“The first time we met, I punched you in the face.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

Alexander found it within him to laugh and  _ god  _ did that feel good. He’s forgotten how it felt like to laugh like that. “Aaron,” The sound of his first name caused him to perk up slightly and Alexander’s heart did that weird  _ skip a beat  _ thing that always happened during High School. “I still have a lot of work to do.”  _ It includes making sure Eliza Jumel never gets in contact with me again.  _ “But when I’m done… would you like to start over?” 

 

He had to make a quick phone call to a certain Eliza Jumel if this was going to work.

 

The absolute relief combined with his helpless expression made his heart do the thing again. He couldn’t remember when was the last time his heart did the thing. It felt nice to have it come back. It felt nice to be back in Aaron’s life. Dropping off the face of the earth was the most lonesome thing he ever did and he was going to remedy that as soon as possible. He’s forgotten how it felt like to love someone and really Aaron was the only one he loved in the first place.

 

It seemed fitting to fall in love with him all over again someday.

 

“That would be nice.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated <33


End file.
